Enough is enough: Pellegrini should start rarely-seen senior West Ham duo vs Chelsea - opinion

This article is part of Football FanCast’s Opinion series, which provides analysis, insight and opinion on any issue within the beautiful game, from Paul Pogba’s haircuts to League Two relegation battles…

West Ham United’s 3-2 defeat against Tottenham Hotspur last time out meant they had taken just two points from the last 21 available, and whatever Manuel Pellegrini is doing now clearly isn’t working.

In fact, the late two goals they scored at the London Stadium actually flattered them considering how poor they were in the first hour or so, and it seems pretty clear that some sort of changes are needed on the pitch if the Irons are to get back to winning ways.

The experienced Chilean has largely stuck with the same XI players in recent weeks with a couple of changes here and there, but it hasn’t yielded a change or results.

It certainly won’t be easy to avoid a fourth successive Premier League defeat when they face Frank Lampard’s Chelsea at Stamford Bridge on Saturday, given the Blues were on a seven-match winning run themselves before they were beaten 2-1 by Manchester City last weekend.

Some of the club’s key players – such as Declan Rice and Sebastien Haller – who helped them move up to fifth position when they beat Manchester United in September have since gone missing.

Haller in particular has just one goal in his previous nine top flight appearances, despite playing the full 90 minutes all of those.

While the Frenchman hasn’t been provided with the greatest of service, he isn’t really doing his bit as a lone centre-forward either.

Despite the horrendous run of performances and results, Pellegrini hasn’t turned to two senior players in his squad in Albian Ajeti and Carlos Sanchez.

The supporters have barely seen the duo in the Premier League this term, with the Switzerland international featuring for just 90 minutes, and the South American midfielder for 40 minutes – 26 of which came against Spurs.

With Pellegrini’s current tactics and personnel not producing, he should consider making some radical changes for trip across the capital.

Bringing in Ajeti for Haller is certainly worth a punt, while Sanchez could fill in for either Mark Noble or Rice in front of the back four – the latter could even play centre-back in Diop’s absence, having played there previously.

It would be a risk, but West Ham need to see if these two players can bring a freshness to a stale starting XI.

In other news, ExWHUemployee has revealed how much it would cost the club to get rid of Pellegrini, Husillos et al…

from FootballFanCast.com https://ift.tt/2qJMVCx